Geological Observations on South America

METALLIFEROUS VEINS.

I have only a few remarks to make on this subject: in nine mining districts, some of them of considerable extent, which I visited in CENTRAL Chile, I found the PRINCIPAL veins running from between [N. and N.W.] to [S. and S.E.] (These mining districts are Yaquil near Nancagua, where the direction of the chief veins, to which only in all cases I refer, is north and south; in the Uspallata range, the prevailing line is N.N.W. and S.S.E.; in the C. de Prado, it is N.N.W. and S.S.E.; near Illapel, it is N. by W. and S. by E.; at Los Hornos the direction varies from between [N. and N.W.] to [S. and S.E.]; at the C. de los Hornos (further northward), it is N.N.W. and S.S.E.; at Panuncillo, it is N.N.W. and S.S.E.; and, lastly, at Arqueros, the direction is N.W. and S.E.): in some other places, however, their courses appeared quite irregular, as is said to be generally the case in the whole valley of Copiapo: at Tambillos, south of Coquimbo, I saw one large copper vein extending east and west. It is worthy of notice, that the foliation of the gneiss and mica-slate, where such rocks occur, certainly tend to run like the metalliferous veins, though often irregularly, in a direction a little westward of north. At Yaquil, I observed that the principal auriferous veins ran nearly parallel to the grain or imperfect cleavage of the surrounding GRANITIC rocks. With respect to the distribution of the different metals, copper, gold, and iron are generally associated together, and are most frequently found (but with many exceptions, as we shall presently see) in the rocks of the lower series, between the Cordillera and the Pacific, namely, in granite, syenite, altered feldspathic clay-slate, gneiss, and as near Guasco mica-schist. The copper-ores consist of sulphurets, oxides, and carbonates, sometimes with laminae of native metal: I was assured that in some cases (as at Panuncillo S.E. of Coquimbo), the upper part of the same vein contains oxides, and the lower part sulphurets of copper. (The same fact has been observed by Mr. Taylor in Cuba: "London Philosophical Journal" volume 11 page 21.) Gold occurs in its native form; it is believed that, in many cases, the upper part of the vein is the most productive part: this fact probably is connected with the abundance of this metal in the stratified detritus of Chile, which must have been chiefly derived from the degradation of the upper portions of the rocks. These superficial beds of well-rounded gravel and sand, containing gold, appeared to me to have been formed under the sea close to the beach, during the slow elevation of the land: Schmidtmeyer remarks that in Chile gold is sought for in shelving banks at the height of some feet on the sides of the streams, and not in their beds, as would have been the case had this metal been deposited by common alluvial action. ("Travels in Chile" page 29.) Very frequently the copper-ores, including some gold, are associated with abundant micaceous specular iron. Gold is often found in iron-pyrites: at two gold mines at Yaquil (near Nancagua), I was informed by the proprietor that in one the gold was always associated with copper-pyrites, and in the other with iron-pyrites: in this latter case, it is said that if the vein ceases to contain iron-pyrites, it is yet worth while to continue the search, but if the iron-pyrites, when it reappears, is not auriferous, it is better at once to give up working the vein. Although I believe copper and gold are most frequently found in the lower granitic and metamorphic schistose series, yet these metals occur both in the porphyritic conglomerate formation (as on the flanks of the Bell of Quillota and at Jajuel), and in the superincumbent strata. At Jajuel I was informed that the copper-ore, with some gold, is found only in the greenstones and altered feldspathic clay-slate, which alternate with the purple porphyritic conglomerate. Several gold veins and some of copper- ore are worked in several parts of the Uspallata range, both in the metamorphosed strata, which have been shown to have been of probably subsequent origin to the Neocomian or gypseous formation of the main Cordillera, and in the intrusive andesitic rocks of that range. At Los Hornos (N.E. of Illapel), likewise, there are numerous veins of copper- pyrites and of gold, both in the strata of the gypseous formation and in the injected hills of andesite and various porphyries.

Silver, in the form of a chloride, sulphuret, or an amalgam, or in its native state, and associated with lead and other metals, and at Arqueros with pure native copper, occurs chiefly in the upper great gypseous or cretaceo-oolitic formation which forms probably the richest mass in Chile. We may instance the mining districts of Arqueros near Coquimbo, and of nearly the whole valley of Copiapo, and of Iquique (where the principal veins run N.E. by E. and S.W. by W.), in Peru. Hence comes Molina's remark, that silver is born in the cold and solitary deserts of the Upper Cordillera. There are, however, exceptions to this rule: at Paral (S.E. of Coquimbo) silver is found in the porphyritic conglomerate formation; as I suspect is likewise the case at S. Pedro de Nolasko in the Peuquenes Pass. Rich argentiferous lead is found in the clay-slate of the Uspallata range; and I saw an old silver-mine in a hill of syenite at the foot of the Bell of Quillota: I was also assured that silver has been found in the andesitic and porphyritic region between the town of Copiapo and the Pacific. I have stated in a previous part of this chapter, that in two neighbouring mines at Arqueros the veins in one were productive when they traversed the singular green sedimentary beds, and unproductive when crossing the reddish beds; whereas at the other mine exactly the reverse takes place; I have also described the singular and rare case of numerous particles of native silver and of the chloride being disseminated in the green rock at the distance of a yard from the vein. Mercury occurs with silver both at Arqueros and at Copiapo: at the base of C. de los Hornos (S.E. of Coquimbo, a different place from Los Hornos, before mentioned) I saw in a syenitic rock numerous quartzose veins, containing a little cinnabar in nests: there were here other parallel veins of copper and of a ferrugino-auriferous ore. I believe tin has never been found in Chile.

From information given me by Mr. Nixon of Yaquil (At the Durazno mine, the gold is associated with copper-pyrites, and the veins contain large prisms of plumbago. Crystallised carbonate of lime is one of the commonest minerals in the matrix of the Chilean veins.), and by others, it appears that in Chile those veins are generally most permanently productive, which, consisting of various minerals (sometimes differing but slightly from the surrounding rocks), include parallel strings RICH in metals; such a vein is called a veta real. More commonly the mines are worked only where one, two, or more thin veins or strings running in a different direction, intersect a POOR "veta real: " it is unanimously believed that at such points of intersection (cruceros), the quantity of metal is much greater than that contained in other parts of the intersecting veins. In some cruceros or points of intersection, the metals extend even beyond the walls of the main, broad, stony vein. It is said that the greater the angle of intersection, the greater the produce; and that nearly parallel strings attract each other; in the Uspallata range, I observed that numerous thin auri-ferruginous veins repeatedly ran into knots, and then branched out again. I have already described the remarkable manner in which rocks of the Uspallata range are indurated and blackened (as if by a blast of gunpowder) to a considerable distance from the metallic veins.

Finally, I may observe, that the presence of metallic veins seems obviously connected with the presence of intrusive rocks, and with the degree of metamorphic action which the different districts of Chile have undergone. (Sir R. Murchison and his fellow travellers have given some striking facts on this subject in their account of the Ural Mountains ("Geological Proceedings" volume 3 page 748.) Such metamorphosed areas are generally accompanied by numerous dikes and injected masses of andesite and various porphyries: I have in several places traced the metalliferous veins from the intrusive masses into the encasing strata. Knowing that the porphyritic conglomerate formation consists of alternate streams of submarine lavas and of the debris of anciently erupted rocks, and that the strata of the upper gypseous formation sometimes include submarine lavas, and are composed of tuffs, mudstones, and mineral substances, probably due to volcanic exhalations, – the richness of these strata is highly remarkable when compared with the erupted beds, often of submarine origin, but NOT METAMORPHOSED, which compose the numerous islands in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans; for in these islands metals are entirely absent, and their nature even unknown to the aborigines.

SUMMARY OF THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE CHILEAN CORDILLERA, AND OF THE SOUTHERN PARTS OF SOUTH AMERICA.

We have seen that the shores of the Pacific, for a space of 1,200 miles from Tres Montes to Copiapo, and I believe for a very much greater distance, are composed, with the exception of the tertiary basins, of metamorphic schists, plutonic rocks, and more or less altered clay-slate. On the floor of the ocean thus constituted, vast streams of various purplish claystone and greenstone porphyries were poured forth, together with great alternating piles of angular and rounded fragments of similar rocks ejected from the submarine craters. From the compactness of the streams and fragments, it is probable that, with the exception of some districts in Northern Chile, the eruptions took place in profoundly deep water. The orifices of eruption appear to have been studded over a breadth, with some outliers, of from fifty to one hundred miles: and closely enough together, both north and south, and east and west, for the ejected matter to form a continuous mass, which in Central Chile is more than a mile in thickness. I traced this mould-like mass, for only 450 miles; but judging from what I saw at Iquique, from specimens, and from published accounts, it appears to have a manifold greater length. In the basal parts of the series, and especially towards the flanks of the range, mud, since converted into a feldspathic slaty rock, and sometimes into greenstone, was occasionally deposited between the beds of erupted matter: with this exception the uniformity of the porphyritic rocks is very remarkable.

At the period when the claystone and greenstone porphyries nearly or quite ceased being erupted, that great pile of strata which, from often abounding with gypsum, I have generally called the gypseous formation was deposited, and feldspathic lavas, together with other singular volcanic rocks, were occasionally poured forth: I am far from pretending that any distinct line of demarcation can be drawn between this formation and the underlying porphyries and porphyritic conglomerate, but in a mass of such great thickness, and between beds of such widely different mineralogical nature, some division was necessary. At about the commencement of the gypseous period, the bottom of the sea here seems first to have been peopled by shells, not many in kind, but abounding in individuals. At the P. del Inca the fossils are embedded near the base of the formation; in the Peuquenes range, at different levels, halfway up, and even higher in the series; hence, in these sections, the whole pile of strata belongs to the same period: the same remark is applicable to the beds at Copiapo, which attain a thickness of between seven and eight thousand feet. The fossil shells in the Cordillera of Central Chile, in the opinion of all the palaeontologists who have examined them, belong to the earlier stages of the cretaceous system; whilst in Northern Chile there is a most singular mixture of cretaceous and oolitic forms: from the geological relations, however, of these two districts, I cannot but think that they all belong to nearly the same epoch, which I have provisionally called cretaceo-oolitic.

The strata in this formation, composed of black calcareous shaly-rocks of red and white, and sometimes siliceous sandstone, of coarse conglomerates, limestones, tuffs, dark mudstones, and those singular fine-grained rocks which I have called pseudo-honestones, vast beds of gypsum, and many other jaspery and scarcely describable varieties, vary and replace each other in short horizontal distances, to an extent, I believe, unequalled even in any tertiary basin. Most of these substances are easily fusible, and have apparently been derived either from volcanoes still in quiet action, or from the attrition of volcanic products. If we picture to ourselves the bottom of the sea, rendered uneven in an extreme degree, with numerous craters, some few occasionally in eruption, but the greater number in the state of solfataras, discharging calcareous, siliceous, ferruginous matters, and gypsum or sulphuric acid to an amount surpassing, perhaps, even the existing sulphureous volcanoes of Java (Von Buch's "Description Physique des Iles Canaries" page 428.), we shall probably understand the circumstances under which this singular pile of varying strata was accumulated. The shells appear to have lived at the quiescent periods when only limestone or calcareo-argillaceous matter was depositing. From Dr. Gillies' account, this gypseous or cretaceo-oolitic formation extends as far south as the Pass of Planchon, and I followed it northward at intervals for 500 miles: judging from the character of the beds with the Terebratula aenigma, at Iquique, it extends from four to five hundred miles further: and perhaps even for ten degrees of latitude north of Iquique to the Cerro Pasco, not far from Lima: again, we know that a cretaceous formation, abounding with fossils, is largely developed north of the equator, in Colombia: in Tierra del Fuego, at about this same period, a wide district of clay-slate was deposited, which in its mineralogical characters and external features, might be compared to the Silurian regions of North Wales. The gypseous formation, like that of the porphyritic breccia- conglomerate on which it rests, is of inconsiderable breadth; though of greater breadth in Northern than in Central Chile.

As the fossil shells in this formation are covered, in the Peuquenes ridge, by a great thickness of strata; at the Puente del Inca, by at least five thousand feet; at Coquimbo, though the superposition there is less plainly seen, by about six thousand feet; and at Copiapo, certainly by five or six thousand, and probably by seven thousand feet (the same species there recurring in the upper and lower parts of the series), we may feel confident that the bottom of the sea subsided during this cretaceo-oolitic period, so as to allow of the accumulation of the superincumbent submarine strata. This conclusion is confirmed by, or perhaps rather explains, the presence of the many beds at many levels of coarse conglomerate, the well- rounded pebbles in which we cannot believe were transported in very deep water. Even the underlying porphyries at Copiapo. with their highly amygdaloidal surfaces, do not appear to have flowed under great pressure. The great sinking movement thus plainly indicated, must have extended in a north and south line for at least four hundred miles, and probably was co- extensive with the gypseous formation.

The beds of conglomerate just referred to, and the extraordinarily numerous silicified trunks of fir-trees at Los Hornos, perhaps at Coquimbo and at two distant points in the valley of Copiapo, indicate that land existed at this period in the neighbourhood. This land, or islands, in the northern part of the district of Copiapo, must have been almost exclusively composed, judging from the nature of the pebbles of granite: in the southern parts of Copiapo, it must have been mainly formed of claystone porphyries, with some mica-schist, and with much sandstone and jaspery rocks exactly like the rocks in the gypseous formation, and no doubt belonging to its basal series. In several other places also, during the accumulation of the gypseous formation, its basal parts and the underlying porphyritic conglomerate must likewise have been already partially upheaved and exposed to wear and tear; near the Puente del Inca and at Coquimbo, there must have existed masses of mica-schist or some such rock, whence were derived the many small pebbles of opaque quartz. It follows from these facts, that in some parts of the Cordillera the upper beds of the gypseous formation must lie unconformably on the lower beds; and the whole gypseous formation, in parts, unconformably on the porphyritic conglomerate; although I saw no such cases, yet in many places the gypseous formation is entirely absent; and this, although no doubt generally caused by quite subsequent denudation, may in others be due to the underlying porphyritic conglomerate having been locally upheaved before the deposition of the gypseous strata, and thus having become the source of the pebbles of porphyry embedded in them. In the porphyritic conglomerate formation, in its lower and middle parts, there is very rarely any evidence, with the exception of the small quartz pebbles at Jajuel near Aconcagua, and of the single pebble of granite at Copiapo, of the existence of neighbouring land: in the upper parts, however, and especially in the district of Copiapo, the number of thoroughly well-rounded pebbles of compact porphyries make me believe, that, as during the prolonged accumulation of the gypseous formation the lower beds had already been locally upheaved and exposed to wear and tear, so it was with the porphyritic conglomerate. Hence in following thus far the geological history of the Cordillera, it may be inferred that the bed of a deep and open, or nearly open, ocean was filled up by porphyritic eruptions, aided probably by some general and some local elevations, to that comparatively shallow level at which the cretaceo- oolitic shells first lived. At this period, the submarine craters yielded at intervals a prodigious supply of gypsum and other mineral exhalations, and occasionally, in certain places poured forth lavas, chiefly of a feldspathic nature: at this period, islands clothed with fir-trees and composed of porphyries, primary rocks, and the lower gypseous strata had already been locally upheaved, and exposed to the action of the waves; – the general movement, however, at this time having been over a very wide area, one of slow subsidence, prolonged till the bed of the sea sank several thousand feet.

In Central Chile, after the deposition of a great thickness of the gypseous strata, and after their upheaval, by which the Cumbre and adjoining ranges were formed, a vast pile of tufaceous matter and submarine lava was accumulated, where the Uspallata chain now stands; also after the deposition and upheaval of the equivalent gypseous strata of the Peuquenes range, the great thick mass of conglomerate in the valley of Tenuyan was accumulated: during the deposition of the Uspallata strata, we know absolutely, from the buried vertical trees, that there was a subsidence of some thousand feet; and we may infer from the nature of the conglomerate in the valley of Tenuyan, that a similar and perhaps contemporaneous movement there took place. We have, then, evidence of a second great period of subsidence; and, as in the case of the subsidence which accompanied the accumulation of the cretaceo-oolitic strata, so this latter subsidence appears to have been complicated by alternate or local elevatory movement – for the vertical trees, buried in the midst of the Uspallata strata, must have grown on dry land, formed by the upheaval of the lower submarine beds. Presently I shall have to recapitulate the facts, showing that at a still later period, namely, at nearly the commencement of the old tertiary deposits of Patagonia and of Chile, the continent stood at nearly its present level, and then, for the third time, slowly subsided to the amount of several hundred feet, and was afterwards slowly re-uplifted to its present level.

The highest peaks of the Cordillera appear to consist of active or more commonly dormant volcanoes, – such as Tupungato, Maypu, and Aconcagua, which latter stands 23,000 feet above the level of the sea, and many others. The next highest peaks are formed of the gypseous and porphyritic strata, thrown into vertical or highly inclined positions. Besides the elevation thus gained by angular displacements, I infer, without any hesitation – from the stratified gravel-fringes which gently slope up the valleys of the Cordillera from the gravel-capped plains at their base, which latter are connected with the plains, still covered with recent shells on the coast – that this great range has been upheaved in mass by a slow movement, to an amount of at least 8,000 feet. In the Despoblado Valley, north of Copiapo, the horizontal elevation, judging from the compact, stratified tufaceous deposit, capping the distant mountains at corresponding heights, was about ten thousand feet. It is very possible, or rather probable, that this elevation in mass may not have been strictly horizontal, but more energetic under the Cordillera, than towards the coast on either side; nevertheless, movements of this kind may be conveniently distinguished from those by which strata have been abruptly broken and upturned. When viewing the Cordillera, before having read Mr. Hopkins's profound "Researches on Physical Geology," the conviction was impressed on me, that the angular dislocations, however violent, were quite subordinate in importance to the great upward movement in mass, and that they had been caused by the edges of the wide fissures, which necessarily resulted from the tension of the elevated area, having yielded to the inward rush of fluidified rock, and having thus been upturned.

The ridges formed by the angularly upheaved strata are seldom of great length: in the central parts of the Cordillera they are generally parallel to each other, and run in north and south lines; but towards the flanks they often extend more or less obliquely. The angular displacement has been much more violent in the central than in the exterior MAIN lines; but it has likewise been violent in some of the MINOR lines on the extreme flanks. The violence has been very unequal on the same short lines; the crust having apparently tended to yield on certain points along the lines of fissures. These points, I have endeavoured to show, were probably first foci of eruption, and afterwards of injected masses of porphyry and andesite. (Sir R. Murchison and his companions state "Geological Proceedings" volume 3 page 747, that no true granite appears in the higher Ural Mountains; but that syenitic greenstone – a rock closely analogous to our andesite – is far the most abundant of the intrusive masses.) The close similarity of the andesitic granites and porphyries, throughout Chile, Tierra del Fuego, and even in Peru, is very remarkable. The prevalence of feldspar cleaving like albite, is common not only to the andesites, but (as I infer from the high authority of Professor G. Rose, as well as from my own measurements) to the various claystone and greenstone porphyries, and to the trachytic lavas of the Cordillera. The andesitic rocks have in most cases been the last injected ones, and they probably form a continuous dome under this great range: they stand in intimate relationship with the modern lavas; and they seem to have been the immediate agent in metamorphosing the porphyritic conglomerate formation, and often likewise the gypseous strata, to the extraordinary extent to which they have suffered.

With respect to the age at which the several parallel ridges composing the Cordillera were upthrown, I have little evidence. Many of them may have been contemporaneously elevated and injected in the same manner as in volcanic archipelagoes lavas are contemporaneously ejected on the parallel lines of fissure. ("Volcanic Islands" etc.) But the pebbles apparently derived from the wear and tear of the porphyritic conglomerate formation, which are occasionally present in the upper parts of this same formation, and are often present in the gypseous formation, together with the pebbles from the basal parts of the latter formation in its upper strata, render it almost certain that portions, we may infer ridges, of these two formations were successively upheaved. In the case of the gigantic Portillo range, we may feel almost certain that a preexisting granitic line was upraised (not by a single blow, as shown by the highly inclined basaltic streams in the valley on its eastern flank) at a period long subsequent to the upheavement of the parallel Peuquenes range. (I have endeavoured to show in my "Journal" 2nd edition page 321, that the singular fact of the river, which drains the valley between these two ranges, passing through the Portillo and higher line, is explained by its slow and subsequent elevation. There are many analogous cases in the drainage of rivers: see "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal" volume 28 pages 33 and 44.) Again, subsequently to the upheavement of the Cumbre chain, that of Uspallata was formed and elevated; and afterwards, I may add, in the plain of Uspallata, beds of sand and gravel were violently upthrown. The manner in which the various kinds of porphyries and andesites have been injected one into the other, and in which the infinitely numerous dikes of various composition intersect each other, plainly show that the stratified crust has been stretched and yielded many times over the same points. With respect to the age of the axes of elevation between the Pacific and the Cordillera, I know little: but there are some lines which must – namely, those running north and south in Chiloe, those eight or nine east and west, parallel, far-extended, most symmetrical uniclinal lines at P. Rumena, and the short N.W. – S.E. and N.E. – S.W. lines at Concepcion – have been upheaved long after the formation of the Cordillera. Even during the earthquake of 1835, when the linear north and south islet of St. Mary was uplifted several feet above the surrounding area, we perhaps see one feeble step in the formation of a subordinate mountain-axis. In some cases, moreover, for instance, near the baths of Cauquenes, I was forcibly struck with the small size of the breaches cut through the exterior mountain-ranges, compared with the size of the same valleys higher up where entering the Cordillera; and this circumstance appeared to me scarcely explicable, except on the idea of the exterior lines having been subsequently upthrown, and therefore having been exposed to a less amount of denudation. From the manner in which the fringes of gravel are prolonged in unbroken slopes up the valleys of the Cordillera, I infer that most of the greater dislocations took place during the earlier parts of the great elevation in mass: I have, however, elsewhere given a case, and M. de Tschudi has given another, of a ridge thrown up in Peru across the bed of a river, and consequently after the final elevation of the country above the level of the sea. ("Reise in Peru" Band 2 s.8: Author's "Journal" 2nd edition page 359.)